Having Requested A
Visit Of Her Sister Ineffectually By Solemn Embassies, She Detained All
The Junks Of Siam, Cambodia, Bordelongh,
Lugor, and other places, that
were laden with rice for Pahan, and sent out all her maritime force,
consisting of
About seventy sail, with 4000 men, under the command of
Maha Rajah, Datou Bessar, and the Orancay Sirnora, with orders to bring
her sister to Patane, either by force or persuasion. The king of Pahan
will have much ado to defend himself; owing to the great dearth, and the
burning of his house, granaries, and rice; it is also reported that the
king of Johor is preparing to go in person against Pahan, while the king
of Borneo is making ready for succour.
[Footnote 387: Named in some writers Pam or Pabang. - E.]
In April, 1613, there arrived several junks from Cambodia and China; and
in May I received letters from Siam, giving notice that the Globe had
arrived there, and that sales were very brisk. I was now busy in
preparing a cargo for Japan; and expecting to do some good there with
Chinese commodities, I borrowed 3000 dollars of the queen for three or
four months, allowing six per cent. interest to the queen, and one per
cent. to the treasurer. We now received bad news from Bantam, stating
that Campochina had been twice burnt down, and the English factory
consumed full of cloth. The Hollanders likewise had made great loss. We
were informed also of a large English ship in great distress at Pulo
Panian, a great mortality being among her people.[388] Intelligence was
also received that the military force of Acheen had besieged Johor.
[Footnote 388: This was the Trades-increase. - Purch]
The 12th July, the king of Pahan arrived at Patane, much against his
will, accompanied by his wife, who was sister to the queen of Patane,
and also by two sons. He left his own country much oppressed by poverty,
famine, fire, war, and rebellion. He brought intelligence that the
Acheeneers had taken Jahor, and had carried away all the ordnance,
slaves, and every thing of value, Rajah Boungson and his children being
made prisoners, and the king of Johor having fled to Bintam. Several
Hollanders also, who happened to be in a ship at Johor, were taken and
slain. The siege lasted twenty-nine days. None of the grandees of Patane
went to receive and entertain the king of Pahan; and the only attention
paid to him, was by killing all the dogs in the place, as he has an
aversion to dogs. We saluted him with our small arms as he passed our
house, which gratified him much, on which he invited us to visit him and
trade at his town.
The 16th July we got intelligence that Captain Saris was at Mackian on
his way to Japan; as also that Sir Henry Middleton had died on the 24th
of May, of grief, as was supposed, for the situation of the
Trades-increase, which lay aground with all her masts out, one side only
being sheathed, as of thirty-three of her crew remaining most of them
were sick. An hundred English, a greater number of Chinese who were
hired to work upon her, and eight Dutchmen, had all died of some strange
sickness. Captain Schot, belonging to the Dutch company, had taken the
castle and island of Solor, with a great quantity of sandal wood. In the
Moluccas also they had done much injury to the Spaniards, and a hot war
was there expected. The 31st of July the king of Pahan visited our
factory in great state, and made us great promises of kind entertainment
in his country. The 1st of August, the queen sent for us to court, to
be present at a great feast given in honour of the king of Pahan; after
which a comedy was acted by women, after the Javan manner, being in very
antic dresses, which was very pleasant to behold. On the 9th the king of
Pahan departed on his return to his own country, having been made a
laughing-stock by the Pataneers: But his wife, the sister of the queen
of Patane, refused to leave him, going back along with him and her sons,
after having spent all she had instead of getting presents. On the 16th
I had a letter from Thomas Bret at Macasser, complaining of a bad
market, and informing me that John Parsons had become frantic: He said
likewise that he had purchased a junk for the purpose of coming away;
but that in the mean time the Darling had come there laden with cloth,
for the purpose of settling a factory at that place.
Rajah Indra Monda arrived at Patane on the 18th of September, having
gone from hence on the 25th October.[389] He had been to Macasser and
thence to Banda, where be made a good market, and had brought back about
200 sockles of mace and a great parcel of nutmegs. He brought me a
letter from Richard Welden. He likewise informed me of the state of
Banda; where the Dutch general, Peter de Bot, had administered severe
justice, hanging some of his men for sleeping on their watch; owing to
which, several had deserted to the Bandanese, and ten had become
Mahometans, who could not be recovered. Neither has the Dutch garrison
any controul over the natives of Banda, any farther than that they
compel all junks to ride at anchor under the guns of their castle, and
command the seas there by the number of their ships: But on the land,
they dare not even give a bad word to any of the Bandanese. The Globe
arrived again at Patane on the 23d of September from Siam, bringing me a
letter from Mr Lucas, who had not received any intelligence of the fate
of the goods sent to Jangoma, as the passages were obstructed on account
of the wars between the people of Ava and Laniangh, or Lan-shang, in
Laos.
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